Shery Welsh taking over UTEP’s Aerospace Center following grant turmoil
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Shery Welsh will take over as the next leader of UTEP's Aerospace Center. A former director of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Welsh will take over the center on July 15, 2024.
Welsh has 37 years of experience working in aerospace science, and has overseen research and managed multi-million dollar budgets, a UTEP spokesperson explained Thursday.
“I am very excited to join the faculty and staff at UTEP,” Welsh said. “Together we will realize the Center’s full potential to advance aerospace research and engineering and build the aerospace industry into a significant driver of El Paso’s economy.”
UTEP President Heather Wilson says Welsh's decades of leadership experience will help the center reach its full potential.
“Dr. Welsh’s extraordinary expertise and leadership will accelerate El Paso’s rise in the aerospace domain," UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken said. "I congratulate President Wilson on this important recruitment as UTEP continues to attract top faculty, researchers and innovators. Dr. Welsh’s new role here will be a victory for our students, the engineering and tech industries, and the vast El Paso borderplex.”
In April, the U.S. National Science Foundation instructed UTEP to suspend work connected to one of its grants pending further review. The center's former leader subsequently stepped down, and then UTEP launched this search for a new head.
